Hollywood star Angelina Jolie on Sunday visited a refugee camp in Burkina Faso, sheltering thousands of Malians who fled jihadist violence in the region.
Jolie visited the camp at Goudebou, in the northeast of the landlocked west African country, as part of her role as an ambassador for the UN refugee organisation, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
In a statement, the UNHCR said the Oscar-winning actor was in the West African country for World Refugee Day to bring urgent attention to a crisis that has forced 1.2 million people from their homes since 2019.
Burkina Faso is acutely affected by the current displacement crisis in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa.
Angelina Jolie, UNHCR Special Envoy, is in Burkina Faso on #WorldRefugeeDay, to bring urgent attention to a crisis that has forced 1.2 million people from their homes.
It’s the fastest growing humanitarian emergency in the world – displacement doubled in the last year alone. pic.twitter.com/aooXraIYly
— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) June 20, 2021
Jolie, who arrived by helicopter accompanied by Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Alpha Barry for a ceremony to mark World Refugee Day, said in her twenty years with the UN Refugee Agency, she had “never been as worried” about the state of human displacement.
“We have to wake up to the track we are on globally, with so many conflicts raging and the very real possibility that climate change will force tens if not hundreds of millions of people to have to leave their homes in the future, with no possibility of return,” she said.
Read Angelina Jolie’s full speech here
“The way the international community tries to address conflict and insecurity is broken”, the US star said.
She added: “It is erratic, it is unequal, it is built on inherited privilege, it is subject to the whim of political leaders, and it is geared towards the interests of powerful countries.”
She called for the international community to focus on finding solutions to reduce refugee numbers globally.
Angelina Jolie, UNHCR Special Envoy, is in Burkina Faso on #WorldRefugeeDay, to bring urgent attention to a crisis that has forced 1.2 million people from their homes.
It’s the fastest growing humanitarian emergency in the world – displacement doubled in the last year alone. pic.twitter.com/aooXraIYly
— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) June 20, 2021
“The truth is we are not doing half of what we could and should do to find solutions to enable refugees to return home – or to support host countries, like Burkina Faso.”
An attack in March last year forced some 9 000 refugees, sheltering there despite previous raids, to flee and caused its de facto closure, according to AFP.
Since December, the Burkinabe authorities and the UNHCR have been relocating the refugees there, having stepped up security at the camp.
There are now more soldiers posted at a new barracks and increased patrols.
Between December and July, nearly 11 000 people from towns in Burkina Faso’s north have returned to Goudebou, said the UNHCR.
PICTURE: Twitter/@MsTwistedNerve
